10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT COMMUNION WITH CHRIST by Benjamin M. Skaug for Core Christianity
1. Our communion with Christ assumes being in union with Christ.
In Communion with God John Owen states, “Our communion with God consists in his communication of himself to us, with our return to him of that which he requires and accepts, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him.”
Before we can have communion (or fellowship) with Christ, we must first be in right relationship to him. That relationship can only come from our being in union with Christ. Our union with Christ is a monergistic act of divine grace that calls, covenantally binds, and applies all of Christ’s redemptive work to us. Through our being in union with Christ, we have regeneration, conversion (faith and repentance), justification, sanctification, and glorification. It is rooted in divine election and grounded in the salvific work of Jesus. For the saints of God, this binding union relationship cannot and will not be changed. At the moment of conversion, we are forever the adopted sons and daughters of God through Christ.
2. Our communion with Christ is our enduring fellowship with Christ.
Now that we are united to Christ, we are called to have authentic fellowship with our Lord and Savior. Paul reminds us that we have been given this privilege by the Father: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship (koinonia) of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). We have not been called into the type of union whereby two strangers are dwelling together under the same roof. Rather, we are called into a sweet and intimate type of koinonia in which our lives are necessarily interwoven with Christ. His will, plans, and affections must grow into and become our will, plans, and affections. His kingdom is now our kingdom and his glory is now our daily pursuit.
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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his disciples that they are to put away the normal worries of this world and “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). As King Jesus builds his kingdom, part of our communion with him is our joining with Christ to seek and pursue his kingdom.
3. Our communion with Christ is fueled by our love for Christ.
The greatest command in Scripture is to “love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind” (Matt. 22:37). This command certainly applies to our love of Jesus Christ: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37). Our love for Christ must be our greatest desire as we live out our communion with Him since it drives and shapes our side of the fellowship. Just as God’s love for us was demonstrated in the Father’s sending of the Son to save sinners (Rom. 5:8), and the Son’s love for us was seen in his laying down his life for the people of God (John 15:13), so too our love for Christ synchronizes our lives as we seek deeper and more intimate communion with him.
